We are experiencing the 1st snow event of the 2014/2015 winter season today, it will undoubtedly be the focus of all news stories tonight 🙂 Many of you reading this outside Finland probably assume that since Finland receives ample snowfalls every year, Finns must be quite used to it by now. On the contrary… 😀 It never ceases to amaze me how initial reactions, almost across the board, are ones of surprise and excitement to seeing the 1st snow of the season.

I’ve already been stomping all around the yard getting pictures of this and that and was taking pictures from inside through the window until I became captivated and ventured outside to see it first-hand. What started out as micro-flakes eventually turned into maxi-flakes, so that within the span of an hour the ground transformed from brown to white. How lovely!

The flakes are now dropping like huge pieces of fluff, enormous in size as compared to the micro fairy dust (thank you to my friend Uolevi for putting those words in my mind) The entire view and landscape changed within the span of a few hours.

Things were already wet and slippery around here with all the precipitation we’ve had through the past week and a half. Pete and Lauri were really having a time of it. Last week I couldn’t stand the thought of them up there in the big winds we were getting and asked them to please come down. Pete was noticing too that things were getting a bit wonky with one of the large pine trees swaying in the wind and moved his construction truck should anything decide to come crashing down. Luckily, nothing like that happened! And, calmer winds arrived improving conditions to just cold and rain, as opposed to ..wind, cold and rain. 🙂

So, how are things coming along? … s l o w l y

Our Ruukki roofing materials arrived a couple days earlier than expected. Here is the delivery backing up in the new driveway space – created by removing the old shed that was once there.

In another shot coming up, taken from the window, you can see how tidy this area is as compared to previous shots when it was littered with construction debris and garbage.

Pekka organized the pieces as they were unloaded from the delivery truck. We thought, wow! the stuff is here 2 days early, we’ll get the roof on even before we thought!….the delivery arrived 22 October, it’s now 6 November. We don’t have a new roof yet.

What’s happened so far is this. The new construction side was prepared for the metal panels, but the porch still needed quite a bit of tear down. In the new design, the porch roof has its own separate roof, thus eliminating the original continuous sloping panel visible in the original house photos.

The construction of porch roof members took a little longer to build than I expected. In reality the tear down and re-construct took almost a full week.

Here Pete is creating the porch overhang for the front stair landing.

Pekka and Pete are laying and attaching the metal panels for the porch roof. Notice that part of the larger roof extends further down from the new construction corner all the way to the porch. Eventually, the entire roof line will extend that far. Today in fact, before the snow started to complicate matters, Pete was in the attic extending the truss tails on the remaining original roof trusses. The original overhang wasn’t sufficient in deflecting water away from the house. By extending the roof line just a little bit makes a significant difference in maintaining a dry cellar and proper displacement of water off and away from the house foundation.

The porch panels are all installed now, but some of the ancillary pieces and cover plates are still to do. Pete has attached the snow guards and in this photo you can see them. I’m hearing a lot of snow sliding right now as I type this…

Once the porch was ‘done,’ attaching the panels to the new construction side started… they’re working the front side only.

The last metal panels of the original roof were removed yesterday. It was like opening a tin can with a giant can opener.. pealing those old metal panels off. They are now just a rusty and tangled heap laying along with other bits of old porch soffit – I think a Peltomaa dumpster might be needed!

And finally, gone for good is that ugly white rain downspout that was hanging at a crooked angle in many of the previous house photos!! so long and good riddance!

Another thing is gone – all the old yellow siding has been torn off and added to the pile of junk to get rid of! The green wind block is seen in the photos above, along with the framing pieces for the clapboard siding to be put up later. Believe it or not, there isn’t enough siding on-hand to complete this at the moment! 😦

Starkki has our style of siding on back-order and they told us it might be combined with our next delivery, but it turned out not to be – as the delivery of insulation for the new construction arrived on Tuesday and it arrived solo… no siding…

Onto the happier news … we went back to Ylijäämä and bought the front door last week. It’s now installed and looking fabulous. It’s great having a right-handed opening door. It sure makes it easier getting in and out now. 🙂 While we were there at Ylijäämä we also bought a cellar door for the space under the new construction. A locksmith is coming Friday. Nice!

Whether inside or out…

..There is almost always something happening here at VanhaTaloSuomi!

Thank you for your continued interest. I look forward to Pete installing the window framing downstairs. I hear he’s just arrived back from Starkki with the extra pieces he needed to get that going. I’ve got the trim stock painted and ready to go!

Hoping we can wrap up a few odds and ends before we leave for holidays in USA. I’m so looking forward to some pumpkin pie and turkey! ❤ ❤ ❤

hmm… well there’s a lot of insulation going in I can attest to that… but me thinks you need a heat source! hahah.
For the most part, we keep from freezing to death by “living” solely within one space upstairs that was boxed in years ago – insulated AND has a wood stove. Otherwise the rest of the house is without heat and is subject to extremely brisk drafts flowing from open attic eaves. And this won’t change until the new roof is on and fascia/soffit are installed which will close up those open eaves. I can get the one room to 20c but only as long as a log or two are put on through the day/night. There rest of the house? not a chance. 🙂

Kate and Pekka, the transformation is incredible – no more yellow siding as well as no more metal roofing has created somewhat of a metamorphosis – truly a magnificent improvement and it makes one that much more anxious to see the completed project. Your new home will be a showplace by Springtime when all of the beautiful flowers and other landscaping make their appearance. Looking out through the new windows is a fantastic view, minus the snow, that is. (lol) Can barely wait for your arrival. Mom